Key Storage Makeover

In order to be a little more organized, my husband and I have a designated “key spot” in our home. It’s just a basket on the bookcase by our front door, but at least we know we are putting our keys in the same spot every time we come in the house. It does save us from last minute searches for the keys as we are rushing out the door.

However, the key basket has become a magnet for all sorts of crap other than keys too. Anytime there is a little bit or bob that doesn’t have a home, it ends up in the key basket.

In order to demonstrate my point, I am going to share with you the ridiculous amount of crap that was in the basket when I dumped it this morning. Feel free to use this picture as a Seek and Find puzzle for your children.

In that one small basket were the following:

1. A half-finished package of sunflower seeds

2. The lock and keys we used to secure the U-Haul when we moved here over a year ago

Fortunately, I found this little cutie at Goodwill for $1.99. It was pretty banged up and had a magazine clipping of a local sports celebrity in the photo frame, but it had potential.

After removing the local sports hero, my first move was touching up the bumps and bruises. Where there were noticeable gouges in the wood, I just took a washable brown marker and colored the gouges in. Then I just wiped the excess marker off with my fingers while it was still wet.

It doesn’t get rid of the blemishes completely, but it does camouflage them pretty well. I have used this trick on dressers and bookcases too.

I brainstormed a little bit about what I wanted to put in the photo frame. I liked the whole card catalog look of the unit, so I continued with that theme. I drew out a backwards “h” (It’s our last initial) on some brown card stock and cut it out. If you have a Cricket or something else fancy, feel free to take the easy way out!

I glued the letter to a page I ripped out of an old, unused dictionary that I dug out of the basement. Nobody other than I would notice that the page I chose was the page with the entry for “hill,” our last name. I’m a nerd.

I labeled the drawers as if they would be holding cards from an old-fashioned card catalog. Are there any libraries that still use actual card catalogs anymore?

It replaced the junky old basket on the bookcase, and I think it looks great. A set of keys fit just perfectly in the drawer with no room for any other crap! Hooray!

That is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute!!!!! I am currently in the market for a “key place holder thingy” (that is the technical term right?) and I love that! My eyes are now peeled for something similar! Thanks for linking at gettin’ crafty on hump day!

I just wanted to stop by and let you know that I linked to this post today from the new Home & Garden channel at Craft Gossip. My hope is to share many of the fabulous projects I see everyday with the vast CG audience. I hope you will not only stop by and subscribe to CG, but will tell your friends about the new category! Hope you see some traffic from it!

You've been featured on Its So Very Cheri. check it out and grab your FEATURED button.If you have any posts that use one of our sponsor products at http://www.diyclubinc.com, you should enter, the prize package is AWESOME.Cheri

The real question is are you able to get your husband to put the keys and stuff away in the proper places? THAT is a craft I would love to learn how to do. ;)Soon to be your distant relative– SUE in Manitowoc